Watch the Mets' pursuit of Oliver Perez. It'll be indicative of the team's immediate future.

The organization was lambasted in the newspapers today after low-balling Derek Lowe -- the Post broke out the old 'Cou-pon' moniker -- and folks are wondering if this Madoff mess is affecting the Wilpons more than they are letting on.

Since word spread Fred and Jeff were among the fleeced, hard-charging GM Omar Minaya has made two below-market-value offers:

A three-year, $36M contract to Lowe, and a three-year, $30M offer to Ollie.

Atlanta went four-years and $60M for Lowe and the Mets never countered.

Could it be because Omar thought $15M a year was too heavy a price to pay for a 35-year-old?

Maybe. And it's probably a sound baseball move.

But if the Mets lowball 27-year-old Ollie -- clearly the next best option for the rotation -- and roll the dice on a cheaper alternative like Randy Wolf or Jon Garland... well, that's not a good sign.